


Beyond the north

by FiveRaysOfSun



Category: NU'EST
Genre: Alternate Universe - Royalty, Alternative Universe - Kingdom, Angst with a Happy Ending, Hand Jobs, M/M, One Shot, Post-Apocalypse, plot heavy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-18
Updated: 2019-04-18
Packaged: 2020-01-16 04:53:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18514291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FiveRaysOfSun/pseuds/FiveRaysOfSun
Summary: Slowly over the many past decades, a giant snowstorm has neared dangerously close from across the horizon, turning everything in its way, from farmlands to villages, into a winter tomb.Dongho is a prince of a faraway kingdom of an endless summer, doomed by the storm headed its way. Minhyun is his loyal knight, sworn his life to protect him.To appeal to the storms wrath, for years the royal family has been offering human sacrifices to it by selecting their own sons to go out into the frozen lands in name of saving the kingdom.After Dongho is picked to fufill the same cruel tradition, Minhyun decides that he has to betray not only his orders, but the whole kingdom to save the mans life.





	Beyond the north

**Author's Note:**

> sry for typos. i wrote this after someone sent me a short prompt (ty.. hope u like this) its kinda sucky but

Raging snowstorm of last night had calmed. Eerie, thick fog was now slowly receding from over the great hills revealing a valley of crumbling ancient buildings, leaning pillars and walls still standing only because they had been built with stone brick. Creaking trees without leaves stood where streets of a village had once been dozens of decades ago.

Now this land was all abandoned, covered in a high sheet of sparkling, yet deadly snow. Not even birds flocked to these cold and forgotten parts anymore. It was a barren wasteland and nothing more.

Only two lone figures would appear emerging from the distance, seemingly traveling through or across the abandoned valley, as if they had a death wish, with one walking slower than the other one.

Years ago many people used to live here. The locals would grow various summer crops and rise livestock on top of the rich soil of the hills. Children would play free of worries and their laughter would fill the streets of these small villages. Every walkway, stone or dirt, was lined by low hanging fruit trees, that were also home of colourful song birds and even parakeets.

But now everything of that kind was long dead, abandoned nests of birds, still frozen strong to the branches of trees was a scary reminder of a life that had once flourished here. Them leaving to the south was the first time that a winter was coming.

A stream flowing that fed the nearby villages had frozen still and the snowed in dirt could no longer sprout life. Since then, the people had left and moved south to escape the freezing north that would take their homes from them.

Not only a spall part, but the whole kingdom was gradually freezing over just like that. Little by little, with each passing day the storm clouds were slowly closing in, swallowing villages and farms of the once fairy-tale like land and there was no human way to stop it from doing so.

The only place yet unharmed by the storm was the city of the crown, the kingdoms capital, where the royal castle stood. It was surrounded by lush vine yards and faraway farmlands where wild horses raced free through the meadows. This was the place of an eternal summer, where rare trees and flowers bloomed all year long, meaning plenty of food and drink for all.

The city was watched over by the royal family of many sons and daughters inhabiting its main palace. The people trusted their beloved kings and queens who ruled these lands.

They told the people of the city not to fear the winter, and that eventually the clouds of storm would recede and so that the locals could reclaim those lands lost, and the citizens of the city trusted their words. After all, the royal family had controlled the lands of the kingdom for centuries.

Yet, despite their own sweet words, even the ones in charge, all kings and their many children, saw the cold doom pending.

That snowstorm was looked upon as somewhat of a living thing, a divine force that had come to punish and torment the people who inhabited these lands. So to appeal and calm the storms wrath, people would often pray to it, host entire holidays and colourful festivals around it, wasting much food and vine in the name of a cloud in the sky that was bound to kill them all.

Some desperate people who saw through the facade of the bourgeoisie parties meant to distract the public, would go out straight into the lost lands of snow to plead directly, only to never come back.

With the dark clouds already visible in the distance from the cities highest tower, even the kings had began to shake in their boots realizing that indeed, the eye of the storm was heading straight for their glamorous city.

Therefore, as somewhat of a cruel tradition, every few years, the royal family would bring a great sacrifice to the terrorizing snowstorm. A sacrifice that did not compare to silk and copper, or bottles of the oldest, finest wine.

At one point they had began sacrificing one of their own blood, members of the royal family, by making them venture out far to meet an icy death. The tradition was so old, it had started over a hundreds of years ago, so it had became a thing that just ran in their family. Everyone was used to it.

Yet the hungry storm was never satisfied even with the live human offerings, making these killings were pointless. Although, nobody dared to admit it.

To select the one, the royal family would hold a lottery, gathering all of their sons and daughters, children to elders, to be picked as the potential next sacrifice. However, it was considered a great honour to be selected and it usually came with a big, lavish celebration which was held all across the city for each time someone was being sent off.

This time around, for the lottery drawing, the palace would organise a grand ball, gathering many performers who would dance up the long halls of the castle. They were wearing colourful, playful colours and masks while entertaining guests with song, dance and by playing melodic flute.

Hundreds of guests, most of them rich folk, would sing along at the endlessly long tables of feast. Until the end of the day after winners announcement, everyone would bow and express their dearest gratitude to one that had been selected. This was about celebrating the end of their life, but it gave the people hope that this necessary death would bring them another spring.

But before the announcement, among the many guests of the buzzing, luxurious palace built of white marble and glass, one man could not be found amongst them.

Prince Kang Dongho was sitting on the floor, hiding under a flag curtain baring the emblem of the kingdom that draped to the floor. Only his clumsy feet would poke out. Today the young prince Dongho did not wish to be found.

The male acted frail and dainty, always whining and complaining about the most useless things. On the flipside, his body looked built, with shoulders and hips built to move mountains of sorts. It was said that the young prince looked like a king, but did not act like it.

Like many other of his siblings, he had a healthy tan, which was easy to acquire in the city of the summer. He wore long layers of clothing, royal garb that draped him in white and gold, likening his outfit to a dapper robe or maybe a dress.

Tasked with finding him was his loyal knight, Hwang Minhyun. A tall male the same age as his prince, he was much paler than the man he had been assigned to guard with his life. After all he had no time to laze around and get hand fed grapes by the servants all day while some poor painter is forced to draw him in all kinds of promiscuous poses.

The knight was wearing mainly black, but also shiny silver clad armour, held by black lather straps which attached a sword tight to his back always ready.

Minhyun stopped his feet at the suspicious looking curtain, with two very obvious and familiar laced shoes poking out from underneath. Dongho knew he was there, but he still hoped that the knight would be just as dumb as the others.

“Your highness, what are you doing?” Minhyuns cockiness directed at the rascal prince could be heard in the way he spoke.

“Leave me alone!” A muffled complaint sounded from behind the hideout.

Only after Minhyuns annoyed sigh and some impatient foot tapping. The coloured sheet slapped to the side as Dongho had angrily unveiled himself, popping out his signature pout lip. Minhyun sighed again annoyed by the man for acting up again, always out to make his life in the palace more difficult.

But soon he saw that the pout was only a disguise, Dongho stood from the ground his eyes shot down low and his bottom lip making a nervous quiver. Dongho was scared, he was scared shitless.

Minhyun wanted to say words to cheer him up, but nothing came to mind on the spot. After a silent second, Dongho opened his mouth to speak in the saddest tone.

“I don’t want to die, Hwang.” He admitted, knowing that there was nobody else, but himself and his only closest friend to hear it.

He looked up to the other man, who to him was someone as dear as an older brother, despite the two being same age. His eyes were glimmering, tinted pink as if he was about to flood with tears. Meanwhile, Minhyun was shocked that the guy would even say something as foolish as that. If it was going to be anyone, then it was definitely not Dongho.

“You are not gonna get picked this time, stop being such a cry-baby all the time.” He cracked up.

“What do you mean this time?” Dongho cried at his friends proud smirk, he thought if he scared him good he would at least brighten up a little. This whole thing was draining him too.

Like he had cast a little spell, Dongho felt a tiny bit better, joining in to laugh with the knight. But he quickly went silent again, making that look on his face as if he wanted something.

“What?” Minhyun raised his brittle, absolutely tiny, barely there, half-brow at Dongho, who had been nervously chewing on his lip before being brave enough to spit out what he had in mind.

“Minhyun, can you give me a hug?” Donghos voice had become suspiciously quiet, his heel away from the ground swaying side to side like that of a shy bride on her wedding night.

This kinda thing wasn’t really a part of a knights duty, realizing that, Minhyun broke out a pompous snort. “I’ll give you one if you do get selected.” He joked, meaning never.

“Hey! You can’t just say that!” Dongho noticed Minhyun already leaving without him and yelled at him in anger. The prince lifted up parts of his needlessly long robe to be able to run down the hallways and catch up to the bastard.

The time of selection had come. The ceremony happened in the largest hallow hall of the palace, with hundreds of people watching as one by one anxious members of the royal blood went up to the high pedestal to have their lucky draw.

It was prince Donghos turn now. He was nervous, hands shaking hovering above a bowl that held gold lining sealed envelopes, from both sides surrounded by torches of live fire. Eyes already looking for Minhyun in the crowd to come bail him out.

Not many envelopes had been left anymore, only a few dozen. Before he picked one at random, he took another glance at Minhyun. Dongho witnessed that the man had turned his eyes away, unable to look.

Deep down, Minhyun was terrified too, but he knew not to show it and be wise, because if he had shown his fear or said anything, Dongho would only be more stressed.

Dongho swallowed and let his hand choose an envelope hoping, begging to himself he had gotten the wrong one. The heart in his chest was pounding like a war drum before he opened it. Inside was a paper note marked with a red royal stamp, his eyes widened in fear realizing all the ones before him had been blank.

Dongho wanted to live. The shock of his scary discovery had made him frozen stiff. Yet instead of cries or mourning in the palace walls, everyone around him began celebrating. Cheers erupted from everywhere the hall congratulating the young prince for winning.

The only person present who wasn’t celebrating was of course his royal shield, knight Minhyun. He pretended to clap because it was ceremonial, but in that moment his sad eyes were fixed only on Dongho, who stood there like a confused and lost deer before the eyes of everyone.

Minhyuns lips pulled into a wavy line that quivered not to let out the angriest of curses. Never did the brave knight believe such a foolish tale about a human offering, because no human sacrifice would ever appeal the rage of the freezing cloud of ice claiming everything in its path. This death was a pointless effort, it pained him to allow it.

For the rest of the day the young prince was surrounded by other guards and members of his own family. Minhyun felt that it wasn’t his duty to serve him that night, as he should instead spend the last of his days with those closest to him.

Until the moon was already high in the sky, Minhyun had been sitting by himself in one of the palaces many flower garden courtyards, not allowing himself to weep. He made himself act strong by imagining himself in Donghos shoes – the way that guy must be feeling right now, his own heartbreak did not compare to that of the other man one bit.

However, even if he tried his damn hardest. Minhyun couldn’t physically last much longer just sitting under the light of the lonely stars, listening to the serenade of crickets, while his friend was going to die while so young.

Minhyun already saw his feelings as greed, and selfishness, but he needed to see the prince. Minhyun needed make sure he was out there still happy and smiling like he always was.

After the ceremony had gone silent, and guards had done their march down the opposite way of the long hallway, Minhyun snuck past them and went up to the tower where the chamber of his dear prince was.

A small hopeful part of him had expected  for Dongho to be laying in his warm bed already. So Minhyuns heart stopped for a second when he walked in on him, still awake and all by himself, sobbing on his bed.

The room had no candles that were still lit, they had all been blown out by the breeze coming in through the large open window. The opaque long curtains would flow and draw in the wind like in water. Only moonlight surrounded the sad figure kneeling on his bed.

Minhyun rushed to his prince, even when knowing he shouldn’t. His knees landed in the softest bed Dongho would lay in every night, other than to drag him out of it, Minhyun had never neared it before. This was his first and last time.

Dongho gasped and blinked his sorry eyes open at the tall man who had sat before him, allowing his knight to comb the sticky messy hairs from his once handsome, but now snotty, red face.

“Hwang!” He called out to the knight who shouldn’t even be here tonight, but Minhyun didn’t care to be caught. No punishment could ever hurt him more than the pain he was already feeling of losing someone who he so deeply cared about.

Minhyun could not say a word, so many of them had stormed his brain, but none of them brave enough to come out. He was also trembling, maybe even worse than Dongho.

Then, Dongho said the saddest thing, “Hwang, can I hug you now?” He begged.

Without a question Minhyun crushed his long arms around him and rocked Donghos back while the man sobbed, screamed directly into his shoulder. In a simultaneous response, the prince arched his fingernails into Minhyuns forearms, clawing his fingernails to keep him.

The day of sacrifice had come. After the days of celebration had long ended, Kang Dongho was put on the road to which he was escorted via horseback. Royal knights accompanied him who up to this point had swore their lives to protect him, but now they had been the ones to put Donghos wrists and ankles into shackles.

They had soon neared the of the lost winter lands edge. From there, while still trapped in his binds that prevented him from running or climbing, he was meant to slowly walk towards the cold on his own, as his loyal guards would retreat back to the kingdom to announce that the deed had been done and that the prince was no more. Without no way to change it, Dongho was destined to die away in those frozen wastelands in a name of an uncertain cause.

Of course Minhyun had to be there too as his final mission, as well to fulfil his own promise to Dongho of never leaving him until the end.

From a very young age, practically the day he had been born, Minhyun had been assigned and later trained to become Donghos shield. The two young men spent most of their lives intertwined, Minhyun was meant to stand by his side until he would be too old and frail to hold a sword.

For those reasons, Minhyun had obviously grown very attached to young prince Dongho, who in return saw him as his own brother as sorts. They were certainly best friends, and they depended on one another.

So ever since that day Dongho had been picked to die in name of protecting the kingdom, Minhyuns heart became cold on the notion that his dear prince he had spent his life guarding was now about to be going straight into the arms of death.

After more than half a day of walking through the hilltops of snow mountains, the skies would dim to black sooner than ever. It had been ages since they had originally passed into the place where grass turned to snow.

The horses here were hard to steer, it was like they knew that the land was deadly, so they kept pulling back. The armoured horses had to be tied down whenever the escort made a stop, otherwise they would most likely return south away from the storm like any other sane living being would.

Dongho was sensitive to the changes in the cold temperature more than anyone else along the escort. Perhaps it was all because he had only spent his whole life lazily dozing off on the sunlit balconies of the castle by listening to the birds song, and only ever left the court for masked ball gatherings or to watch horse races.

The boy would normally get sick with the cold just by being near bodies of water. And every time he did get sick he always acted like it was the end of the world too, complaining and acting like a sissy child who had never experienced a cough before by spending days hiding under at least three different sheets, so that his knight would have to tilt his mattress to actually get him out of bed.

Out here, the price from the land of an endless summer wouldn’t even last a minute.

Late at night, huge winds would pick up, as well as piles of snow would be thrown up into the air and back down forcing the party to stop the convoy. Until the dawn of light, they could venture no further, so they stopped to build tents for the night in an area surrounded by walls of ruin of a place a village that had once been.

On that very same night, behind the back of his own knight brethren, Minhyun had decided to betray his own order, his royal code, because in the end he could not see his prince he loved dead no matter what was on the line.

When everyone had laid rest to save up as much energy as they could for tomorrow. Minhyun acted to commit a heinous thing.

With his sword polished to sharp he struck through a tent of the other knights who camped before the next sunrise to prevent them from taking the prince to his death.

A horrid dying scream was loud coming from the pitch dark. Acting thirsty for blood after Minhyun had managed to killed one of his fellow knights already, he would go after the rest of them as well. One by one, until there would be no one left to hurt his prince.

The other nights had just assumed he had gone mad, lost his whole mind from the cold, and began to fiercely fight him back.

The sounds of deadly blade ripping against another blade, as well as angry yells for help woke up everyone who had been still sleeping in the camp. It was pitch black outside, aside from that it was also snowing pretty heavily and the wind had already picked up to extreme speeds.

Dongho had no idea what was happening once he had woken up inside of his own tent, steel shackles still squeezing around his bruised wrists that had been trying to itch themselves out free for the entirety of the cold journey.

Through the loose gap of the tents door, he saw a spark of a sword light up in the dark, and then he finally picked up those helpless screams of his knights who bled red into the snow beneath their feet.

Horrified, Dongho had mistakenly assumed they had been ambushed by vicious and starved snow wolves, so in absolute panic crawled and tumbled out of his tent to run towards the black, all while snow and wind made it impossible for him to even fully stand.

Sharp branch would cut into his face as he dashed through a row of trees. Dongho threw up his own elbows up to cover his face, thus further lost his vision in the dark by doing so. He didn’t care that his muscles were begging him to stop running, all he knew in that exact moment was to find an escape.

Within those scary dark mists, someone tried to grab him. It quickly turned out to be another maimed knight who tried to stop Dongho from running away with his last dying breath, but in the state of confusion, the prince shrugged the man off. He was strong enough to do so since the very next moment, the same man would fall face down dead in the red snow.

The odd scent of copper was fresh in the air. It went up into Donghos nostrils when he begged for a breath. A wet sensation seeped thick through his clothes after that knight had touched him. It was warm and flowed in a stream, nothing like melting snow or ice would feel.

To his advantage, Minhyuns eyes had already been used to the dark, not unlike the other knights who had just woken up and didn’t even have their own boots on to be ready, let alone fight one of their own. However, even if the tall knight was an excellent with the sword, he could not avoid sustaining injuries.

His body had been slashed with blades many times with fresh scars, some cuts were deep, some barely sliced through his light armour. In midst battle, he dropped all but his shoulder guard, risking his defence just to be able to swing quicker. Obviously the man was ready to be fighting to death.

The howling winds that had made Donghos eardrums sore were still not loud enough to mute those distant, horrific screams coming from back at the camp. In middle of dashing his way through the piles of snow and rubble, Dongho stopped in grief to listen and gasp when recognizing his very own knights yell.

He turned back to look for Minhyun, forgetting all about the mission and only thinking about his loyal knight. When Dongho returned he had to feel around in the dark at the camp with his hands and feet, as if he was blind from snow hitting his face. On that night, he had been only wearing light fabric clothing, a sheer cape coat that drooped to his feet, getting tangled in snow.

No one would answer princes call, even the horses had ran off, their hooves prints had already been practically erased from the snow by the strong winds. Something had scared those animals loose, leaving the escort stranded forever.

Therefore, Dongho dared to open his eyes and discovered the gruesome scene – bodies thrown around in the red snow, all of them unmoving, perished.

Dongho raised his eyes to the last man standing. A figure panting and wheezing with his whole chest, sword still gripped in his clasped hands.

Before Dongho approached the figure, his voice spoke, but it was already weak and full of tremor. “Minhyun, is that you?” The prince had dropped his formalities, shocked to find his childhood friend in this state.

“You are alive— But, what have you done?” Slowly Dongho came to realize what had happened and why was Minhyuns sword now painted in blood of his own brethren.

There were no wolves or monsters raiding the camp, the one who had done all of this was Minhyun, and he had done it for Dongho.

The knight turned around late, yet relieved to find Dongho who had managed to escape. Although, he now looked in bad shape. Snow had wet and clotted to the mans shoes and the ends of his long garb, making it heavy.

His lips had been kissed by the frost, pale and sparkling with newly forming ice. Even Donghos eyelashes had become spider webbed with snow, but his chin and cheek was glistening with wet, while the mans body rapidly lost its heat.

Even after the slaughter committed by the man, Dongho wasn’t afraid of him. He knew that his always loyal knight would never hurt him. The weakened prisoner took few steps forwards, his ankles held together by a short chain, and as soon as he had gone close enough, Dongho literally fainted into the arms of his knight.

Like motionless statues, the two figures stood splitting the wind, stuck standing in the middle of what was once their camp. Minhyun clutched the tired body of the other. He had kept his promise to protect him forever.

New dawn soon broke on the horizon as he night had soon finally passed, and eventually so did the rage of the storm. By the next morning, the skies had become bright, yet there was no sign of blue, just endless grey from one end to the other.

The eye could not see far, as everything was covered in an impenetrable white mist. Exactly from those mists the two men came, after having spent the night resting and taking safe shelter under the weak walls of the old city ruins located nearby their campsite. Because the horses were certainly long gone, their journey back had to be on foot.

The path south lead them through a long alley of randomly placed leafless birch trees which grew close to one another, surrounding them from left and right, was a canyon of just ice hills.

Minhyun walked ahead while bravely holding up his sword, ignoring his wounds from last night, because by now they barely felt like mere cuts to him. He was acting cautious, hoping to stay quiet or be ready to fight if some starved animal came to attack them, or worse, a downed knight had come back alive to jump out of those blind mists and finish the job.

Meanwhile Dongho slowly dragged behind the other. His legs and wrists were still up to this point trapped in shackles that had been sealed shut without a lock for a key, because to where prince Dongho was originally meant to go, he wouldn’t need a key to unlock those again.

Because of the binds, Donghos arms and legs were thus bruised to blue and brown. Also, his clothes had been stained with blood, although none of it his own though.

While breathing out the most painful breaths, he held an arm to his side where his ribs seemed to be hurting the most. Dongho didn’t even recall how or when he had hurt himself. It obviously slowed him down and he could barely focus on following the knight in this state.

He glanced up to look at his knight up ahead wanting the guy to slow down just a bit. Minhyun appeared to be aimlessly walking back south, continuing to carry out his duty of protecting.

But realistically, Minhyun did not have a clear plan set in mind, of course he did not. The minute they would walk back into that city, both of them would be torched to ash in towns square for their betrayal.

Dongho had already long realized this, including that his fate was already doomed either way. Out here in the frozen lands or inside of the warm boarders of the evergreen kingdom, he was still destined to die.

Minhyun noticed the crunch of the snow behind him go silent so he turned back to take a look at the weakened prince. The way he was, looked way worse than before. Both the cold and a fever was starting to get to him.

“We have to keep going, highness. We can’t stop now.” Minhyun worried for Dongho, fearing that if they slowed to rest for even a minute then those droopy eyelids of his prince would not come up again.

Dongho shook his head to dismiss him, feeling that walking any further back was too much work for him when his body was already crumbling down and he seemed to be content with such a fate.

“You go back by yourself and just leave me here.” Donghos voice was a little louder than half a whisper, yet his words greatly shook Minhyun and everything the man has ever stood for causing even a strong man like him stumble his step backwards, as if he was faint.

“I can’t do that.” Minhyun worried.

Donghos eyes didn’t change, his opinion was still the same and couldn’t be changed either, but Minhyun wasn’t going to change his either, “I must serve you until the day I stop breathing, your highness.”

The knight reassured what he had been taught his whole life, and him quoting that only made Dongho upset. His eyebrows shift together with rage.

“Stop treating me like a royalty all of a sudden, you are my friend!” He yelled from his hoarse throat and it literally burned to make sound.

“Your highness—” Minhyun still tried to refuse, even right after his prince had told him to drop their formalities. This was a hopeless argument.

So if the knight was really going to be like this then Dongho had decided he had to speak up to him the way Minhyun probably wanted, by giving him an official knight order.

Before this very moment, Dongho had never abused his power when giving any orders to his servant Minhyun. Also, he had never assigned the guy to do things that were strictly against his own will, but now the prince believed that there was absolutely no other way.

He said, “You have to realize, I won’t make it Minhyun. I am only slowing you down like this and if the storm comes back then we will just both die.”

He shot his chin away, his next sentence was low and bitter, “Even if we ever manage to return, you will instantly get recognized because of me.”

Minhyun was just about to widen his mouth to speak yet another objection, but Dongho was sharp to cut him off from saying anything at all.

“This is an order.” Donghos confident speech began to sound more like blatant begging towards the end, “Please Minhyun, I don’t want you to die for me anymore.”

The knight stood there unable to think. All his life he had been thought to always obey orders of the prince, in fact, his whole purpose of life was to serve him. So by going against Donghos word he would be defying his sole reason for living.

“I won’t ever abandon you.” Minhyun surprised Dongho, who did not expect for the knight to be so direct to him while he was just speaking as an authority.

“You—” A sudden choke in Donghos voice stopped him from speaking.

Dongho sure wanted to throw out more hurtful insults at his shield right now, yet instead of that he could only pass out a whine. It looked like, his awful sore throat had given out already.

Minhyun thinned his lips watching the prince suffer after such a powerful outburst. Dongho was now panting and out of breath, and the knights heart became so torn at the sight.

In that very moment, Minhyun just wanted to rush to Dongho and hug him so bad, but as just a lowly servant Minhyun was never allowed. Even if they were close enough friends to sneak hugs, the blood of a royalty still raced through Donghos veins. So for someone unimportant like Minhyun, who only served to hold a sword and shield in his hand, the young prince was in every way and form untouchable.

Even now, Minhyun continued to go by the code of trust that had been placed upon him since birth, to serve and bow to the royal family.

After a long minute of painful, endless silence, Dongho spoke again, but this time his words were much more hesitant and slow, “I don’t want to go back.”

“What?” Minhyun blinked his eyes at the weak male, who had been clutching to his hurting side for a long while.

“It’s not my home anymore.” Dongho admitted his wish not to return to the warm and cosy castle that he had once grown up in.

Instantly Minhyun understood his reasons why yet this wasn’t a solution either. “Even so, I can’t just leave you out here like this.” He suddenly snapped.

Dongho made a small smile, remembering how even though he was the one who was a son of a royalty, Minhyun still often acted even more pompous than him. When they were younger, the two would have many arguments. Although, whenever Minhyun would purposely push his buttons, the guy always knew the line, or at least a point after which he wouldn’t have to get fired and be sent out to tend the castle vineyards instead.

However, Dongho liked that about him. His knight was often the most annoying person in the world yet even then Dongho couldn’t help, but to look up to him. Dongho saw his friend as more kingly than him, since Minhyun was always so brave and full of wit.

“Hey, Minhyun.” Dongho suddenly called out, not offended by being scolded. His toes were twiddling purple inside of his shoes from standing in the same spot of snow for so long.

Minhyun listened carefully, because this time it sounded very important. “If we could, I wish we would run away together.” Dongho hoped.

He had gazed up to look at Minhyun with the glassiest, saddest eyes. In that moment the knight felt so much pity for him.

Where would they run to even if they did, while the world was being encased by snow overtime, he regret. The only sanctuary was back in the crown city.

Despite the upsetting truth, Minhyun was still moved, “Run away? With me?”

Usually he would always be the one to tease the young prince for making corny comments like those, but now that Dongho was on the brink of his death, and thus speaking from the bottom of his heart, Minhyuns ears were sharp to listen.

“You are my best friend, in fact, my only real friend that I’ve ever had around the castle. So I can’t watch someone I love die because of me.” Dongho realized that he was starting to mope and quickly ran his tongue to speak himself back on track.

“That is why I want you to go on alone from now on, you do not need to serve me anymore.” Dongho tried to make an official order again, but it physically hurt him so bad whenever he tried to put on a serious voice, his heart was breaking into two.

“Be—dismissed.” He pushed himself.

The same second, Donghos knee had suddenly become light. Like an arrow Minhyun had darted to break the fall for him.

The knight held Dongho up by the shoulders and the prince was smiling, appreciating the gesture, yet was guilty that his leg would not listen to him to get back up.

It really felt like this was it for him, Donghos limbs had stopped responding and his fever was at it’s peak. It was ravaging through his body, which had previously only been used to being spoiled by the hot rays of the sun at the castle. The place where it never snowed or rained too hard. Naturally, Dongho was clearly not built for this, especially at such an intense low temperatures.

“Fine, dismiss me.” Minhyun spoke in a proud voice, “But then from now on, I am going to do whatever I please.”

Turns out, Minhyun had already slipped in to his friends dumb wish of running away together. Of course, Minhyun did not know in what shape or form, yet it was now clear – wanted to stay by Donghos side, now more than ever.

“Let’s stick together, okay?” He asked the ill man who angrily shook his head away to signal a no. Luckily, his highness had already just given Minhyun the free reign to object to his wishes.

The plan had changed. Instead of carrying Dongho towards the city and risk him to more exposure en route, his knight took a turn and began walk a different direction than the one they previously knew as their only home.

Minhyun had put his sword away to be able to hang the ill man over his shoulder. Dongho heard that steel clink to the knights back held in place by his remaining shoulder brace, raising his nose in interest.

It surprised him that Minhyun would so suddenly let his guard down, since it was a knights duty to never put a sword away in a situation where the royalty is endangered and all. Minhyun was going against his own code.

Donghos eyelids fell heavy, but he reopened tem to see where they were going. The lack of ticking made by Minhyuns spinning compass he used to find the south made him anxious. Now had put it away unused in one of his pockets.

In a far distance, poking out from the mists flooding down from the great hills, a tall ghastly watch tower oversaw the ruins of buried meadows and frozen vineyards.

Now the abandoned watch tower existed as a creaking stone building. Rotten out wooden steps lead the exiled men to the high entrance after decades of vacancy. When stepping inside through the door that had since fallen from its hinges, it almost seemed like only layer of ice was the one thing still holding the wooden ceiling above intact.

Remarkably, this was the tallest surviving landmark in the area, while the rest of town had already been swallowed by layers of snow. The most miraculous part was that somehow there was a still flying, although ripped and all torn up, flag baring the emblem of the princes home kingdom.

Once the two men found themselves safely inside, they came upon the strange discovery of finding out that the place appeared to have been previously lived in. Possibly another pair of scavengers had made their camp here a long time ago leaving behind some items, such as torn blankets, rusting steel cups, as well as a spot for a campfire.

Upon making this their new settlement for a while, Minhyun began to closely observe what little they had, and if that would be enough to ever bring Donghos fever down, but the things were honestly looking grim thus far.

He took and cleaned a steel cup, filling it with the same snow they had bought in from outside, then placing it close to the fire spot to try and melt it down into something actually drinkable.

A flame was made on the floor where the dried, half burnt firewood was stacked, causing Donghos numb limbs slowly come back to life, making him violently shiver. He whined in pain from his feverish body feeling like it was burning inside out.

“Minhyun?” Dongho managed to flutter his eyelashes back open, their tips had been frosted with ice.

The knight answered to the man who was so surprised to see him still there, hugging him to share warmth.

“I have already decided that I am not ever leaving you.” Minhyun stated. “Whether as only just your servant or as someone you view as a friend, I promised to always stand by your side.”

Dongho wanted to yell at him for being so moronic, but his own voice was too tired for that. Judging just by that sad expression on his face, Minhyun already knew that the stubborn prince had something to say, so he added.

“I’m not leaving you because it is my duty not to. I am not leaving you, because I want to stay with you.” Minhyun spoke.

“Turns out you’ve become a bigger fool than me.” The corners of Donghos mouth had twitched, Minhyun supposed that he was trying to smile.

Minhyun had just murdered his own men in cold blood in order to save the one who was dear to him. He had signed a literal death sentence for himself from the very moment he had drawn that sword at the camp, but he would do it again if he ever needed to protect Dongho more. Maybe, the only thing Minhyun regretted was not running away with the prince into this wicked storm sooner.

The occupied Minhyun had only just now remembered about those painful shackles that had already bruised Donghos wrists sore. His hand reached to hold him, but Minhyuns fingers stopped short in travel, twitching still in place. It looked like it hurt for Dongho and Minhyun was hesitant trying not to hurt the royalty in any way.

Dongho gave him a small, tired nod of approval. Minhyun tugged at the frozen steel chain, which would not come off, they had been made permanent as a part of a tradition.

Out in that cold forgotten land, his skeleton was meant to sit in the snow wearing only the shackles that displayed the same royal emblem that had been flying on that flag outside the watch tower.

“I am going to get these off.” Minhyun promised to free the man of his unfair imprisonment.

Dongho who had been sitting to regain his strength, kneeled in front of a large rock debris, setting his elbows down in preparation for the said removal. A sword once again appeared in Minhyuns hand, it’s sharp side glimmered reflecting the light of dim fire as he raised it high.

Dongho winced his eyes shut and instinctively stretched his wrists as far apart as they could in front of him, allowing for Minhyun to slash the chain that connected those steel shackles.

He had been trembling in anticipation for a while, but nothing had happened yet. Before he peeked open one of his eyes to look, the knight woke him first by having placed his hand on top of Donghos shoulder, calming him with a kind smile.

Minhyun was an excellent swordsman so there was nothing that he should be afraid of. The knight cared more for the safety of Dongho than he did for his own.

Surely, Dongho wasn’t convinced at all. He took a deep breath and looked away, while his fists gripped tight and ready again. White tensed knuckles would ghost from his red and almost inflamed skin.

The sword slashed down on the chain once, yet it did not break. Dongho jolted in place. The sword was now dull, but it was shortly after swung again for the second time, which proved a success.

Dongho saw his hands break apart once the chain was split, he smiled up at his knight in the biggest, happiest relief and the other male smiled back.

“My legs too?” Dongho requested. "Yeah." The other man approved.

Minhyun quickly repositioned him on the floor to hammer down on the leg chain until it would eventually give away too, leaving behind only the not so removable steel bracelets.

After becoming somewhat a free man again, Dongho rushed to Minhyun for an emotion filled hug, suddenly forgetting about their difference in status. Not like that ever mattered to the prince aside from trying to not get his friend in trouble.

Dongho was truly so glad that Minhyun had saved him, but at the same time, with this the guy had thrown away his whole life. Minhyun had betrayed his fellow knights and the orders of the king, and for those crimes Minhyun would certainly be punished by death.

While hugging him, Minhyun could feel the other man radiate much heat from his body. Dongho was still having a bad fever.

Trembling hands belonging to Minhyun would clumsily run over the wet frosted over straps of Donghos clothing to quickly cover him those blankets which had been forgotten inside of the watch tower by the previous travellers had to be used. All bloodied rags Dongho had been wearing till now soon fell forgotten on the floor.

Minhyun wondered if someone brave, who had left these things behind, had actually ventured out this far to go perhaps even further. It made him think if it could be possible for anyone to survive out there in those frozen wastelands. This lead to Minhyun theorizing that maybe there was something out there on the other side of that storm, and after weeks of walking perhaps eventually there would be a new land.

He daydreamed of lush forests filled with undiscovered animals, birds searing into the clear sunny skies, or even secluded villages of other hidden kingdoms beyond. At this point, it was all just wishful thinking though.

“I am so cold, please can you just hold me?” Dongho suddenly begged causing Minhyun to freeze up for a solid second. The young prince had never made such a request before.

Dongho was wearing nothing but the thick blanket around him, making his shoulders poke out and be visible. His breath was also seen, pouring out like mist from his dry, cracked lips.

Something shiny glimmered inside of Donghos eyes, but perhaps Minhyun was just seeing things now.

The man stared at Minhyun waiting for long enough to make the man realize that he wasn’t asking for an embrace as a part of a knight duty to keep him warm, but as a friend who needs a friend.

Of course Minhyun had understood, and that’s exactly why he had been hesitating to comply for this long.

Minhyun became shifty eyed, sights darting from left to right in effort of trying to figure out how to warm a man up even more, but not make it weird.

Suddenly Minhyun had gotten a rush in his bones. For the first time ever, he had dropped his sword from being strapped to his back or clutched in his hand to get himself closer to Dongho. Really close.

Minhyuns wide frame slouched over Dongho, his hair pressing into the princes neck. Honestly, Dongho had not expected for it to turn out like this, although he didn’t complain.

Prince stared at that blood stained piece of steel sword laying on the floor after Minhyun had hastily trashed it just now. It seemed weird, since Dongho clearly remembered how seriously Minhyun would look after it. Without sugar-coating the need to be wielding a sword Minhyun always insisted it was intended for killing and not play.

That’s why the guy would always get really mad whenever Dongho would yoink it while Minhyun wasn’t looking. Preferably to use it to roast himself a chicken breast over a fireplace inside the corridors of the royal court. That’s why knight Hwang basically never took it off his back in front or anywhere near the ridiculous prince.

The embrace although nice, was still very much awkward and unhelpful. Dongho could not feel the warmth of Minhyuns body through his clothes. The guy had to get under the same blanket as him, clearly.

However, Minhyun was a bit anxious to do so. If Dongho didn’t previously already owe him his life, then because of this, he certainly owed Minhyun all of his future lives too.

It took Minhyun a bit to be able to completely unstrap the last bit of his knight armour, soon he was just as naked as his prince before him. That was when all of a sudden they both unexpectedly started minding official court manners. Closing eyes and not staring at one another to be polite.

Dongho had flashed his eyes open for only a split second, a timeframe short enough to not make it count. From what he saw, Minhyuns shoulders looked even wider without the armour than they did when he had it on. They were huge, probably wider than any chair backrest found in the palace to compare.

Minhyun sneaked himself under the same blanket and positioned hovering above Dongho who was laid down on his back. The blanket wrapped around them like a cocoon.

Once they were this close, they had finally realized how awkward this actually was. They were facing one another, almost a breath away from pressing cheek to cheek. For some reason, being stuck like this was making Minhyun laugh out loud.

The last time the two were as close as this was when they were younger. Teenage Dongho had allowed Minhyun to rest head on his lap to play with the knights hair. The tallest had shut his eyes that faced the sun, letting himself doze off while on duty. Minhyun slept while rubbing his cheek into the other boys thigh and Dongho laughed quietly from above.

Back then that felt comfortable, intimate. It made them both think the same thing like, how come they never did this more often.

The sweet dreamy moment ended as soon as one of princes mentors who had been looking for the two had found them laying under the shade, hiding away from everyone and playing around together on a flowerbed of one the many castle courtyards.

Minhyun got scolded accordingly for doing a despicable thing with someone who was so much higher than him in rank, since he was nothing more than a guard, while Dongho was someone training to possibly become the kingdoms next ruler. After that, they had never did it again to avoid getting themselves into the same embarrassing trouble.

The prince didn’t know why, but when Minhyun was laughing, he began to laugh along too.

The tallest decided to explain his apparent reason for his chuckling, “I don’t remember ever predicting that I’d ever be in this situation with the future king.”

Dongho rightfully snort, “A king? I was never meant to be a real king.”

He would instantly pout his lip, thinking about all of his brothers, sisters – hell, even his two dozen of cousins who were all way ahead of him and more suited to wear the crown than him. That is, assuming that they wouldn’t meet the same fate as him of being sent out here one day.

Within the grounds of the palace, prince Kang was the dullard only known to cause trouble, steal moonshine and when caught blame all and every one of his bad influences on his royal shield, Hwang Minhyun all the time.

But even then, when Dongho was so hard to manage, Minhyun still cared so much about him. If the knight had ever been born during a different moon, and thus would be assigned to some other member of the royal family instead of the new-born Kang Dongho, Minhyun would still love this man and his stupid antics just as much.

After a brief pause of conversation, Minhyun had accidentally became kind of hooked on staring at Donghos face while this up close. Minhyun never had the chance to carefully observe his small features, while on duty busy protecting the man twenty four seven.

He found the young prince quite mesmerising, and while zoned out, he started to pay more attention to that little pouting lip of the man.

The short male snapped from his train of thought to catch his servant in the act of staring, but he did not instantly question it. Rather, then they both had a similar puzzled look on their faces, as soon as Minhyun had heard a tiny sound come from him. Donghos heart in his chest had gone from rare knocks to full pounding at his chest in less than a second.

The fire was cracking in the quiet background and neither of them had said a thing yet. Both of them focusing on that slowly drumming sound in Donghos chest, until eventually their eyes got too used to staring one another’s faces again.

This whole time Minhyun had been carefully holding his breath, but now his built up anxiety had just gone away. He exhaled and his breath came out hot like steam, pooling onto Donghos rosy cheeks. The second it went away the other man missed it, he felt so cold without it.

The knight was starting to get worried for himself, especially when Dongho began to make a blissful face, enjoying his warmth. Looking at him like that made him feel a lot of strange emotions, even unexplainable physical ones, almost as if he had a fever too, but that was not it.

Donghos heartbeat began to settle overtime, calmed by Minhyuns closeness, but the pounding was still faintly there. His eyes narrowed to just tiny slits in effort to keep looking at the handsome knight without accidentally dozing off inside his comfortable arms.

Maybe Minhyun was only seeing things now, but it seemed as if Dongho was somehow inviting him in, like a sugary treat left out on the table exactly for him. The boy’s new smile was so welcoming, homely.

Something, much like a magnetic force, was slowly bringing their faces together. In the exact moment right when Minhyun was only this close from accidentally bumping noses with the prince of the kingdom, he had suddenly lost all fear.

Donghos body instantly responded to what was going on before his brain could even process it. So when Minhyun sank his face down, Dongho had instantly parted his lips to welcome him in.

Minhyun barely landed his lips on top of Donghos and he hadn’t moved yet. He held his breath once the second wave of anxiety suddenly had kicked in, and he began to doubt if doing this was okay. After all, why he shouldn’t be kissing the young highness was so self explanatory that it had been excluded from all knight training courses.

The kiss had originally started out as something strictly platonic, but soon they both felt that the feelings they now shared had quickly grown from just brotherly affection and admiration into something greater. Minhyun meant his kisses.

However, there was no rush in between them yet. Minhyun cautiously scrolled his lips over Donghos, lightly dipping down and then drawing back fearing that he had been too sudden. The prince didn’t seem to mind, smiling in-between all his stolen first kisses.

A shadow of their two warm bodies before the fire intertwined into a union, one shifting in front of the other, repositioning into the right spot to make those light, puppy kisses more frequent.

Soon at one point, Minhyun finally broke the first real contact by making slow rounds of wet bites on Donghos lips which had quickly been teased numb.

Minhyun was starting to lean down on top of Dongho a lot more, not even his wounds would bother him anymore after bliss of feeling Dongho finally make the weak attempt to kiss him back. The guy was ill, they had to take that into account.

“Minhyun?” Dongho suddenly spoke, surprising the other who quickly now snapped out the heat that had overtaken him.

“Are you alright, highness?” The knight had code switched in an instant. Dongho would pretend that he didn’t find that funny, but like always he could hardly contain his wide smile.

He started speaking a little more profound, but Minhyun still listened no matter how silly it sounded.

“Do you think the snow is ever going to stop moving towards the city? Everyone always says that it will never reach it, and it will just stop there, but what if it doesn’t?” Dongho worried.

“What if it just keeps getting colder until one day it gets too cold?” He asked to the knight as if he knew. Then he took a moment, before the last thing could roll of his tongue.

“I don’t want to lose you, Minhyun.” He admitted, eyes shy of the other man.

The tall boy became starry eyed at the notion, and answered to his question a little differently, “It’s warm enough for me wherever you are.”

After having heard that, Dongho was starting to believe maybe freezing to death was better than having to listen to this guy flirt. Minhyun grinned down at him until Dongho would nudge his shy chin away from such nasty words.

Instead, Dongho just kept his eyes closed, waiting for Minhyun to make a move again. The tall male couldn’t stop himself not to, especially since they were far from the palace now, and nobody would ever know that they had embraced one another like this.

The low risk of being discovered made them seem like they were something other than a royal blood and his petty guard. It made Minhyun forget about that and feel like someone actually much more important in Donghos life.

If only anyone actually found out that these two had imprinted on one another, perhaps then then they would send Minhyun to the freezing north as punishment.

Each time the men would press their bodies together, Minhyun would always be cut a little short by those prisoner bracelets and their loose chain hanging from the wrists of the prince. But of course, they probably bothered Dongho a lot more than it did Minhyun. Beside the steel rubbing on skin, a pair of nervous hands would palm Minhyuns stomach moving up to rest on his chest.

Minhyun twitched when Dongho drew his hand over a stab wound, by holding in a faint whimper. The guilty man looked at his own hand that had grazed the cut and bit his lip at the sight of dried blood coating his palm.

“Does it hurt?” Dongho asked the obvious.

“It’s nothing.” Minhyun spoke, not caring that the battle would leave his body maimed with scars. If that was the price he had to pay to save the life of his prince, then it was all worth it.

To distract Dongho from being sad, the tall male raised his hands and to hold Donghos head in his hands, his fingers sliding and threading inside of the mans soft silk hair. In response, Dongho closed his eyes and made a happy face.

No one had ever held or cared for him like this before Minhyun, it made him feel so loved. From cradle to the grave, Minhyun had been and was always meant to be by his side, so he couldn't stop himself from falling in love with him.

Minhyun hanged his head down first, then lowered his slander long spine down to hug Dongho from above. The two kissed again, meaning to never part ways again.

Their warm breaths made clouds of mist and steam pollute the small room. Silent sighs escaped from one another’s mouths when they pulled to the side to rest before pulling back into another long heated kiss.

Their heated bodies moved up against one another, and arms wished to reach around each other until it felt like they had limbs had become one. Minhyun would gradually learn to sway his body forwards and back, and overtime it became a rhythm. Once gotten used to the slow movement, Dongho would try to mimic it, raising his hips towards his friend to clash with him sooner.

The motion made much friction, gradually becoming uncontrollable and needy. The skin in-between them was so hot, sweaty and uncomfortable, but they couldn’t end it.

When Dongho raised knee brushed up against Minhyuns leg, begging to do something about the heat, at that point the knight could not even tell if the leg was his own or not. Every slight connection or touch was so confusing. He felt good being touched by Dongho and it felt exactly just as good to touch Dongho himself.

Kissing and embracing the other man felt like a sweet yet forbidden dream to him, because how could something as good as this could ever be real.

Minhyun could barely keep his own eyes open anymore. His lips ached for more, in search they scout Donghos jawline, and then after finding it, disappeared deep into the neck.

That feeling on Donghos neck, combined with Minhyuns now wandering hands, that danced its curious fingers from Donghos chest to hips, made the young prince feel like he was dying, and when Minhyun would breathe away from his wanting neck, he kind of would. Dongho believed had died and gone to paradise, and then come back to life, finding himself in the arms of the one he loved the most.

They had moved and shifted many times during their embrace, but Minhyun finally drew his hand back to feel Donghos knee already pressed deep into his side, as same with the other. The guy was clamping down on him like a bear trap. Minhyun looked at the other male, who was making an embarrassed face.

For the two of them it had now finally kicked in about how far they had ventured and it terrified them a little, but at the same time, why stop now.

Dongho wanted Minhyun to know that if his fever did not go down, and there was nothing the knight could do apart from leaving him behind, Dongho at least wanted to be with him until that time comes. To feel happy and protected for one last time.

Minhyun understood this without words, but even if Dongho was destined to die, even then he wouldn’t leave him. Minhyun had already decided it was worth to die for him.

Just thinking about his deep feelings for him, made Minhyun slip further into the craze of the heat.

The tallest body began to stand away from his friend. Their shared blanket was bought up along with him and it fell off from Minhyuns shoulders when he was now sitting tall and menacing above the royalty.

Minhyun probably had no idea how scary he looked from Donghos low angle. With his fox like eyes parted just slightly, he glared down at the other like a hungry beast.

Dongho shot his wrists to his face in an effort to hide himself, his eyes anxious and glued to Minhyun repositioning above his chest. His annoying loud heartbeat made a comeback.

While Dongho would squirm, Minhyun was taking in the view as some a picturesque sight. No doubt, even without his dainty royal garbs and dressed down to nothing, Dongho sure still looked like a charming and shining prince.

He could touch himself just to the sight of him, but instead he decided to give that joy to Dongho instead. Like a pouncing cat, he surprised the other by attacking the mans throat with his tongue.

Dongho winced his eyes shut and swallowed hard once there was a wet contact made lower, in the spot where his collarbones met. A second later a kiss landed in a spot even lower than the last one, and little by little it trailed from the middle of the mans firm chest, to his soft and sensitive tummy that bounced up in surprise reacting to Minhyun ice cold lips.

Out of a sudden Dongho whimpered, shooting his chin up at the sky. Minhyun had reached the end of stomach, his loud breaths were falling low, and the prince had gone whiny.

Perhaps, whiny was an understatement, because when Minhyun kissed his skin. He reacted by arching his spine from the floor of his resting spot, letting out a tortured gasp he had been trying to hold back so hard this whole time.

Minhyun made a smirk, pressing his smiling teeth right above Donghos belly button, reminding himself of the embrace their past selves had shared back in that blooming castle flowerbed, back when Minhyun had gotten in trouble for it.

Shortly after, his elbows slowly began to crawl themselves back up to Donghos face where another kiss awaited him.

The fireplace had gotten the room warm, or maybe it was the warmth coming off from their bodies, but it was what prevented them from freezing.

Minhyuns breaths had soon become hard pants, his wet lips were no longer able to tuck or hold onto Dongho easily. The shortest male slowly began to sit up himself and Minhyun to stop him from burning himself out too soon.

He laughed and told Dongho that he was fine, even though it wasn’t exactly true. Dongho took over, leaning his chin into Minhyuns neck for a kiss, but that changed as soon as the guy discovered how baby smooth Minhyuns neck really was, and how soft it was to rub his chin up against it.

There had been a very prominent, buzzing feeling in the pit of Minhyuns own stomach, that had become desperate to be let out. It distracted him. He had never felt a thing like that before, or at least not anything as intense as this. He wanted for the other man to check if it was really there, and he wasn’t just going crazy.

“Here, right here.” He guided Donghos clumsy hand over to feel and touch his stomach. Dongho could only assume that it wasn’t just butterflies trapped in his gut that pained him.

“Can you feel it?” Minhyun held his own hand over his friends, the other man made a confused shrug, all he could feel only by touching was the extreme heat. The mans body was burning like a furnace.

“Yeah, I think.” Dongho spoke focusing his eyes only on his own hand that now held Minhyuns delicate, smooth skin.

It was pretty, almost glow like even despite being ruined by scars of battle. Intrigued, Dongho ghosted his fingertips over the small bumps and arches of muscle on Minhyuns chest. Minhyun began to repeat in his head that having such a high royalty touch him in adoration felt like an honour he did not deserve.

After a while Minhyun realized could no longer handle just the warmth of Donghos hand alone. He was wanting something more, a small taste wasn’t enough.

“Your highness, forgive me, but can I?” Minhyun expressed his wish to continue giving the royalty his servitude in any way, shape or form to make him happy.

“You don’t have to call me that, I am not a highness anymore.” He shot his eyes down in regret. This meant that Minhyun was effectively no longer his dearest knight.

“Then Dongho, Kang Dongho. Can I be with you?” Minhyun still spoke with so much chivalry in his voice. Donghos face became full of red once he finally fully recognized the intent of Minhyuns question.

In that moment, Dongho forgot about the snowstorm that had torn through their initial campsite last night was bound to come back soon enough. In fact, at this point he did not care if the storm took him under the snow, as long as he held on to Minhyun.

He nodded, and then nodded once again to confirm it twice over. Thus Minhyun sat close to him and pressed lips on his mouth again, distracting him from the hands that would reach around him and touch everywhere they pleased.

The two parted and met their eyes, both nervous and very much afraid. Minhyun warned Dongho of his touch, breathing hot on the trembling lips of the other. Only then his own cautious hand proceeded, and slid Donghos palm downwards away from his stomach.

The cut chain of Donghos shackle drooped down in between Minhyuns legs, slapping unpleasant cold against his thighs. It made a ringing sound, but luckily then the next moment it was replaced by a warmer, pleasant feeling.

Careful fingers slowly began to wrap abound him, and a pair of the softest lips landed on his – Donghos. The fingers of the prince moving and sliding across his wanting skin alone made Minhyuns mind turn into a cloud of thoughts that could no longer be read.

Within the next moments, Minhyun was panting again, arching his hips and hiding his ashamed face from the new ruler who had made him this way. The tallest leaned forwards to exhale over the others shoulder, quiet voices left his mouth, but not even Donghos sharp ear could make out what was said.

His hand had become obedient on Minhyun, slow yet observant. The tallest had already let go of guiding the hand of the other, after it had learned to rhythmically move on its own.

Mans palm stroked from slow to quick with little sound, occasionally a rough thumb would scroll to the top and press down, moving in gentle circles before dipping down again to move quicker with the rest of the hand.

Unable to sit still, Minhyun moved his hands up and around Donghos neck and shoulders or reached to the mans ears and gripped into the ends of his hair. While many voices passed from his singsong lips.

But to touch Dongho back Minhyun first needed permission. Even if he already knew that the guy wanted that more than anything, a small part of Minhyun still felt unworthy of it.

“It’s fine.” Dongho resolved. When he spoke, his voice was blocked and ill, “Go ahead, knight Hwang Minhyun.” He joked.

The tallest of the two returned a happy smile, but his face had become somewhat pained after hearing his dearest speak with a voice so faint. Such grim thoughts started to pile up in his head, Minhyun wished to make them go away.

Dongho gasped in surprise when all of a sudden Minhyun pushed himself back into Donghos lips, while at the same time his free hand rushed to return the favour to the man who was also growing harder by the second.

Minhyun jerked his hand to match the speed of Donghos, finding brief intervals to slow and lightly squeeze his palm, to have the face of the prince give off sparks.

Dongho broke his lips away from being tangled in Minhyuns. He began breathing like he was already close, and with cloudy eyes he stared at Minhyun in the highest of adoration for making him this way.

The young man had been staring at his friend with those big, adorable deer eyes, for so long that Minhyuns hand had began to accidentally stall. Yet Dongho still moaned like it was the best thing in the world.

He stopped to smile at the whining prince, stroking his soft cheek, fingers trailing to his neck. It felt like ants were running over Donghos skin when he did so, it was such a strange, hypersensitive, ticklish feeling.

Then his hand began to move once more, a row of fingers had gone brushing over the top collecting its wetness, easing the future thrusts. Dongho didn’t see, his eyelids had locked themselves shut in bliss.

The hand that had once touched Minhyun was now just sitting there, idle and maybe trembling, but not moving. Dongho had forgotten and Minhyun didn’t blame him. To wake him, the tallest lowered his head into the neck teething small cautious bites.

Donghos limbs had soon become heavy, yet his mind felt weightless, almost as if he had been drugged by some venom hiding inside of Minhyuns lips that kept kissing him all over, sucking his skin on his shoulders and neck.

He reopened his eyes to a view down, Minhyuns hips had drawn close to his, both of his hands occupied holding his own and his friends dicks poked together.

Dongho hanged his jaw open feeling them press up against one another in full length, inside of Minhyuns small hands, squished and in two different mismatching colours.

Careful friction was made when Minhyun jerked both of them at once using his whole palm, but it didn’t feel like enough until Donghos hands joined as well.

Their fingers had become wet and glistening, even sticky from vigorously scrolling across the heated, stretching skin. While the tallest would break in and out of a controlled kiss with the other, who had become more faint than him.

Something heavy was starting to stir in Donghos stomach, something he wouldn’t be able to hold back. He first opened his mouth to warn Minhyun, but all that came out was some embarrassing moan.

Fortunately, the other man did not view it as such, he knew he was on the right path with this. So almost as if he were doing it out of spite, he made Dongho make that same moan again without even touching him in any other place.

“Minhyu—n.” Dongho broke into another one, and after that he just kept repeating the same name over and over like his brain had cooked from the heat.

When Minhyun heard the prince mouth his name along with such a desperate look on his face, literal butterflies would begin to storm inside of his stomach. No, it was worse than that. It felt as if something was ripping Minhyun apart to shreds from the inside, infecting his bones and every other vessel of cell inside of his body, he was pleasantly unwell.

Dongho was there to watch his face bloom, staring in awe as if he was watching some firework show.

Without being able to hold himself back, Minhyun got loud. And few seconds later he shot wet into the air high enough to spray across his friends chest. The blankets that previously kept them warm and all wrapped up were now just rags spread out or crumpled across the hard wooden board floors.

Still in middle of a high, Minhyun had decided to not waste time and just leap his knees forward pushing Dongho backwards for space. The short male looked clueless seeing Minhyun near him and then dip his head down right above his stomach.

Seconds later, Dongho realized what the dazed man was up to, right as Minhyun was locking his cold hands back around the guys blushing dick, the sudden sensation almost made him scream.

“Minhyun, you don’t need to.” He spoke against the will of his own body, already able to predict that the jerk was totally about to suck him off.

Minhyun glanced up from his spot, he had gotten so low, mouth aimed at Donghos lap as if he had any serious clue on what he was doing. “But my highness, I must.” He displayed a toothy grin to the other, willing to take all the blame.

No matter how hard he tried, the young prince couldn’t do anything about that pretty smile his beloved was giving him. To confirm the act he nodded.

“Hwang, Hwang Minhyun. I love you.” He choked out a weak voice that was way more affected by what his friend was doing to him more than any fever.

“There aren’t enough words in this universe to express how much I’ve always loved you.” Minhyun admitted his biggest sin.

Donghos nervous pupils reflected the light of the flames which were sitting beside them. His eyes drew big, in fact huge, as he watched his friend dip his hair down into his lap and disappear from sight.

The prince shot his pointy chin up, head thrown back to let out a gasp. Something warm and soft had touched him where he was the most sensitive, by the next second it became evident that those always talkative, plump lips of Minhyun were popped tight around him. Tiny, shaky hands were holding at the base, Minhyuns fingers pressing into weird, but still pleasant directions.

Minhyun rolled his lips forward and then back, gradually becoming a drooling mess. At least for him it became easier to ride his tongue up and down.

Dongho reached his hand to hide his frozen fingers inside of Minhyuns pretty kempt locks. The male responded by purposely leaning his scalp into the palm of his friend, while at the same time trying to swallow more of his pulsing heat.

By this point, the knight had been absolutely right about losing his last vestige of chivalry. Not only would this make him lose his rank among knights, but as far as he himself knew, deflowering one of the royal princes was something punishable by burning at the stake for the crimes of bewitching.

His throat made sounds, unflattering slurps and whines, but at the given moment to Dongho these sounded somewhat delightful. Minhyun pulled back, to stare back down in bliss as strings of droll still connected him and the body of the other. He opened his jaw, gulping down.

Despite the sounds of the cracking fireplace and the dangerously high winds picking up outside, Donghos ears instead became more drawn to hearing even louder laboured, sticky breathing coming from the boy sitting in-between his knees.

Minhyun didn’t think stop. He could pick up the signals that the body of the other man was giving out and that Dongho was closer than ever.

Soon the strangling heat of Minhyuns mouth crushing around him became far too much. Just as predicted, Donghos heart was again beating all over the place, trying to punch its way out of his chest. His face was burning with something other than a fever and head had started throbbing in a way he never knew could feel good.

The scream that tore from the short man was louder than any roar of thunder Minhyun had ever heard. A stinging, squeezing pulse of electricity had phased through his every bone, every cell in his flesh, leaving Dongho behind as a numb and a motionless body.

Minhyun wiped his lips back dry up against his arm. Right after the intense act, the mans eyes looked carnivorous, like an animal eying a pray, but when that arm had moved away from his face, it became obvious that the glare had only been a jest. The knight was breathlessly grinning at the other man, like he had achieved some kind of a victory.

Dongho stayed laying down as he were, not wanting the wonderous feeling of afterglow to fade away any quicker. All he wanted now was for Minhyun to hug and cuddle him, and after that he didn’t care.

Minhyun wanted to do such a thing too, but being a bodyguard of the man always came first for him. He quickly piled the blankets back onto freezing Dongho, wiping his sweat for him too, before even seeking a blanket for himself.

“Minhyun, please come with me.” Dongho begged him as the light slowly drew from his eyes from exhaustion.

Wherever he believed that he was going next, he wanted Minhyun to be there too. Dongho feared that he would lose his friend in that scary deep darkness that was slowly casting over his dim vision. All he needed was just to hold a hand to feel a bit more safer.

“I will Dongho, I will. But for now just close your eyes and rest.” The knight strictly advised.

Minhyun hushed him by petting Donghos head and then sat him up to take a sip out of that cup that been sitting near the flame, before his perhaps fateful nap. The melted water wasn’t boiling or hot, just lukewarm enough to possibly warm Donghos lungs from the frost.

By the time Minhyun was done wrapping him up all warm and comfortable, Dongho had completely dozed off, and his knight was soon to join him, since unfortunately the storm outside was slowly creeping back over them.

Overtime the firewood burned less and less, it was not like there was not much to begin with, as frozen planks quickly got wet and unusable in the heat.

Throughout the day, Minhyun still did not lay down next to his beloved, instead he sat holding the sword readied to protect him until the end.

Even when he shut his eyes and pictured some place warm to help himself nap, anything but this decrepit building swaying to the howling winds, his eyelids would not hinge themselves shut disturbed by the approaching sounds of the storm.

Another long hour had passed, Dongho had been sleeping on and off, but at least the worst of his fever had passed over. With little left with little to do, Minhyun had left his guard post to start exploring the watchtower a little bit more, looking for resources to keep the watchtower heated.

Minhyun poked his sword into a layer of hard ice that had coated every piece of rubble laying on the floor of the room, searching for something left behind to burn.

Eventually, after lifting some light debris, he hit a jackpot – a lost travellers bag. It was dirty, ripped up and frozen stiff to the point where the once loose threads of the fabric stuck out like sharp needles. The fact that the bag was still here probably meant that the traveller had met an unfortunate end, judging by how nobody would just leave their stuff behind.

The bag ringed of metallic goods, more dishware Minhyun presumed. To wherever this unknown explorer had gone, his path was probably days long if he carried so much of the same thing.

There were many heavy tools stuffed inside, although now they had become rusty and dull. Perhaps, the traveller was part of a bigger group, maybe he had gotten separated and wandered off by himself to end up here. Minhyun made blind guesses.

Minhyun began to unstack the bag. Amongst the abandoned goods he found some folded up scrolls and crumpled papers. Both curious and enticed, he reviewed them hoping maybe they could tell something about who had last been out here and why.

He squint his eyes looking at one of such paper showing an old map of the lands here prior to the snow. Map markings indicated places where rivers once used to run, hunting grounds rich with forest tree beasts. All that was left of such terrain today were just bald fields of snow dotted with trunks of dead trees sticking out of the ground, unless they had been knocked down by the high winds.

Minhyun must have been too young to remember ever seeing these places shown on the map in person. This was a scary wakeup call for him, that the snow was truly moving in even quicker and quickly.

His eyes became narrow again noticing more strange directions and lines drawn from place to place across the faded map. They were certainly curious, since knight was never aware such routes even existed.

A pointer finger of his trailed to see how far the went, until he had to flip the map on its other side to continue the smudged ink quill line dotting over hilltops and over ravine drops.

To his disappointment, the map ended before the drawn line could show to where it was leading. On the ripped maps edge was some handwriting, which probably had been done by the man who once held this map before him.

“A new home.” The letters read in slanted cursive. Minhyun was confused by such an eerie title.

He stretched his neck to stare into the distant north as of he could imagine himself seeing through the stone walls of the watchtower.

Minhyun could only make poor guesses about what exactly could be out there where that trail goes. Perhaps an estranged family living secluded by themselves in some warm cave, or maybe a camp of bandits chased out by the city.

Minhyun drew his sights over to Dongho who’s body would occasionally twitch and whine from under the weight of blankets and animal pelts that were still present inside of the last standing building of the frozen village.

With map in his hand, the knight felt small hope for his friend. A chance to survive long enough to see if there’s actually anything like that out there.

But the storm was already slowly snowing them in. Ice had been creeping up the buildings walls and swallowing the old path that they had stomped out to get up here not too long ago. This storm, it was almost as if it was actually alive and out to get them.

Minhyun woke his beloved, and told him about his crazy idea to him. The man was weak, and best bet was that if he didn’t use his feet to walk now, he would not be able to later.

For Donfho there was nothing left to lose, so he easily agreed to blindly test Minhyuns theory. After all, in his entire life he had not trust any man more than he did trust Minhyun.

Their new gained rationale bought them back outside right into the vicious storm that would claw at their faces trying to tear every bit of warmth away from them.

The assumed journey would mean days of walking, perhaps longer if snow and wind slowed them down. But the cold along the way was the worst part. A night time, if they did not find a shelter ruins or an underground shaft for a campfire, they would die from exposure in mere minutes.

They first ventured back to their ravaged camp to seek out additional resources, like food or drink that had not been frozen solid overnight. By the time they returned, camp was barely recognizable, only the poles of ruined tents would poke out from underneath the high layer of snow.

There, Dongho and Minhyun were fitted with some snow shielding goggles they found, to make it significantly easier to see through the falling snow, that would turn everything past the tip of their own noses into a complete fog.

Donghos feet clumsily traversed the camp, trying to be mindful not to step into a dagger or a defeated sword hiding in the snow floor. Although despite his best efforts, his stomp met a crunching sound anyways.

The prince gasped, clinging to Minhyuns shoulder after recognizing a body of a slain knight laying in the snow. The body appeared to have been ravaged by animals since they had left, proving that life could exist out here if it really wanted to.

The two collected everything they could carry, pans, animal furs and boxes of food, either all thrown over their backs or mounted behind them on a rope like a sled.

They then began their walk forward straight into the forbidden north, leaving behind a long trail of footprints as their slumped figures faded from birds eye view.

The relentless wind had been whistling past their ears for quite some time, even by being underneath their snow caps their ears either felt sore at times or just didn’t feel at all.

After night and day of walking, nothing but endless piles of snow ever showed up past the horizon. It was torturous, each time they spent minutes walking up a long hill to see something, anything at all, there was nothing beyond its peak, until the next hill twice as tall blocked their sight.

The men got to see such high mountainsides that they had previously only heard of in tales. By following the path on the map, it would lead them up and then down, and sometimes even through frozen ice caves where water once used to slow.

But at least the fact that such actual landmarks existed, proved that the map Minhyun had found was legitimate, and perhaps eventually it would lead them somewhere.

They learned to walk along the sides of mountain ridges, avoiding getting hit by the cold, deadly wind. However, even with such precautions, Dongho would still fall way too many times.

Minhyun pushed him up from the ground whenever he sank his knees into the ground, begging to rest, his knight told him they have to keep moving forward no matter what. Dongho couldn’t believe he had lasted this long, but that did not mean that he hadn’t already given up.

They believed that after days spend aimlessly walking, they had already walked past the edge of the map into the no mans lands. A place so far past the other end of the storm that it probably had been hundreds of years since a man had previously walked his foot here.

Minhyun struggled to open his eyes, even the inside of his goggles had frozen over, it seemed like the vapour would freeze inside of his lungs before he even exhaled making his chest hurt so much.

Previously Dongho had kept whining for Minhyun to make a footstop somewhere, because he was starving, but Minhyun could hardly admit that there was nothing left to eat in their backpacks. Soon after Dongho stopped asking about it.

Finally the wind had stopped blowing in their faces. The two bodies kept walking while barely holding on. Their feet were heavy, tied up in layers of animal skins to prevent them prom freezing over.

As they walked through a forest of rotten trees, they noticed the previously violent temperature giving them some mercy. It came just in time before their limbs and skin would begin to die off in the cold.

Minhyun no longer saw clouds of storm in the distance, only when he looked back the way he had came. He realized that they must have gone through it somehow, ending up in a place where winter turned into spring.

Fallen and thrown trees rest in the way of their path, they had been left behind by a big storm that had ripped everything from its roots many decades ago. This place, it had to be the new home that their map had told them about.

But their bodies had become too tired to celebrate. Unfortunately, it seemed like even Minhyuns body had reached it’s limits. When he kneeled to the ground he apologized to Dongho for the abrupt stop, but the man would not reply. The frost had covered the lenses of his goggles so Minhyun could not see if his prince was still awake or not.

Minhyuns heart was suddenly struck by heartbreak, realizing that Dongho would not wake to his calls anymore. All of Minhyuns loudest yells directed at him came out only as tiny, desperate whispers.

He soon abandoned his quest of survival, to instead hug Dongho tight. His lips pressed upon the ones of his prince and arms hugged what seemed to be his final stand.

The two bodies stuck together for long, frozen like statues made of ice, in middle of a large field with noting, but dead blackened trees around them.

What felt like an eternity later, the still pulsing warm ears of Minhyun picked crunching sounds approaching from up ahead. His first instinct was to grab his sword, which he managed to do powered by what seemed to be his last breaths of life.

He stared up through his cracked goggles, all view was blocked by black bars from the top and bottom, but by trying really hard, he could make out squiggly figures approaching him. Minhyun assumed they were hallucinations, his mind playing tricks before right before dying.

The figures fearlessly approached him without stopping, imaginary or not, he roared waving his sword to warn them off away the body of his prince. Even in death, he wasn’t going to let anyone else have him.

Instead, the sword he fought with instantly would fall from his frail fingers and thus his shoulder sunk to the ground. He breathed out, exhausted and motionless.

The figures looked human, just like him. They were dressed in thick winter clad clothing, fur and leather sewn in together thick. Corners of sleeves dirtied with what appeared to be soot. They all wore the same goggles, yet unlike him, with no kingdom emblem in sight.

Minhyun finally saw light enter his sullen eyes when one of them had taken his own goggles from him, revealing his face to the sky. The stranger stood in the way as a shadow, bright skies created the illusion of a halo around them.

“They are not one of our scouts?” A female voice called to the other men who had been dressed in the same way.

In the background, someone older sounding made a nasty throat sound and then spit to the ground before speaking, “How the hell did they even get this far?” The male cursed under his breath.

Minhyun had no power to answer any of their questions, his body now felt miraculously lighter to him, but that was because he had not noticed the strangers lifting him onto a sled. Instead of seeing, he focused on hearing, carefully observing these voices to figure out where they were from.

A strange dialect ran in all of their tongues, Minhyun had never heard it before, he could not recognize it. These strangers spoke amongst themselves, describing how they had seen the pair walking towards them from across the empty fields for hours via a telescope watch. From that far they only looked like small moving black dots in the distance.

“Hey, you gotta check this out.” The youngest male voice made all others stall their feet.

A short, high pitched boy observed Minhyuns goggles with a bug eyed, star-struck look on his face, up until someone much taller than him, grabbed to look for himself.

They all seemed to be in disbelief about the emblem painted onto the protective goggles. Another man soon removed the sword from the snow and found the same emblem there too. Although his eyes soon grew wary discovering blood still stuck in it’s handle.

Everyone looked at one another in shock. They didn’t speak anymore, but only rushed to pack the two dying males onto a sled. Dashing through far smooth hills more north of here.

Donghos reddened eyes slowly fluttered open. The speeding sled hit the bumps had shook him awake from his long sleep. The man scrolled his sights around him and now found himself inside of a large city built of steel, wood and scrap.

It sat deep inside of a ravine. Giant shards of ice dangerously loomed from above, high winds would just blow over it at the top, leaving the city below much less harmed by any storm that was rushing over to the south.

Beastly mechanical engines roared from every direction and produced black fumes reaching high up into the air. Steel towers at least four floors high were scattered across the city overlooking the stacked homes. He quickly figured that those strange towers were the ones producing warmth while being powered by hills of coal.

Thus, the streets were mostly covered in melted snow, soot and grime. As well as the worst puddles one could find themselves stepping into. Yet the people living here must have grown used to the noise and smell polluted city, for them it was their home.

Dongho had previously never seen such wondrous machines like this in his life. The only thing he could liken it to was wizardry, because back in his kingdom such things didn’t even exist on paper.

The his sore eyes now widened awake, when into his view came a giant tower, almost as wide as a palace look out tower, but much taller. It stood right in the heart of the city, where hundreds of workers were busy around it, doing steel repairs or shovelling coal.

It was built entirely out of copper and steel, with oddly placed pipes that broke steam from the cracks. The people carrying his sled referred to it as some generator.

He figured, that’s how these people out here had survived the frost of the winter caused by the storm. As it turns out, it wasn’t actually swallowing up the entire landscape, but merely just passing over it. Veiling everything in its path a barren wasteland, but as it showed, there was still hope for a life after.

In Donghos head only a mere second had passed since he blinked his vision, but in reality almost week had gone by of him asleep.

He found himself inside of a room, facing it’s ceiling. Light would come shining from the upper building level through the gaps of flooring.

It was built of mismatched wooden planks and rusting steel. Outside, through the frosted over window he could see long icicles reaching down from above. On the inside were a row of beds, separated by long curtains. It looked to be like a medical ward.

He had to blink his eyes opened and closed for a while before being able to determine if this was a dream or not. It seemed real, his body was still aching, and bruises had made his wrists ugly where his shackles had once been. A lot of time had passed, he could conclude.

Dongho instantly shot up in bed looking for Minhyun, but he didn’t have to go far. A weight pressed down on his chest, the other man was under the sheet with him.

Minhyun opened his eyes and raised his voice in excitement to see Dongho so awake. His squeal had alerted the ward doctors to come by, since it turned out that this whole time Minhyun had been too ill to use his throat, vowing silence until Dongho would wake.

The two men were both more terrified of the strange city of winter survivors, untrusting and even freaked out by a culture that was so different from their own. In this city there were no knights, no kings. Just families trying to survive out the endless cold with the little they had.

The two men instantly held hands, and made promises to never let go.

Dongho, or the man with the locks on his wrists, as they called him here, particularly stood out to the locals, because his skin glowing and tan. The people of here, with faces worn from work and covered with soot, had never seen anything like it in a hundred years. Minhyun was found interesting because of his battle scars, which were already gradually healing.

They were asked many things, like where had they come from, how did they ever survive out in that storm. The reactions made the two men guess that no one else before them had actually made it this far. So those travellers before them that had made the map were probably swallowed by the storm before they could ever reach contact.

A man dressed in a suit of a medic, who looked like he had lived his whole life with the same stern face, had kneeled in front of Minhyun, stretching the deep wrinkles on his face into begging look.

“Has the storm reached the old kingdom yet? Have people survived it?” He spoke.

It looked like these people have probably been unable to contact the other parts of the kingdom for hundreds of years. Eventually they had all given up and started a new life, passing down multiple generations of children. By now none of them had actually ever seen the real kingdom. The news of it had only been passed down to them via old tales.

All of these people had been abandoned by their own kings and queens after their homes and villages had been deemed lost by the storm overnight. Nobody had gone looking for them until the storm had already frozen them in from all sides.

It made Dongho and Minhyun both wonder how many people outside of the city gates had actually survived for long enough, stranded and awaiting for a hopeless rescue.

Minhyun parted his dried purple lips to speak, but his still horribly ill throat would make no sound to please the men and women of the ward gathered around him. Instead, Dongho would suddenly speak surprising everyone by doing so, because he had come in as the weakest one of the pair.

“The storm has already taken over our city, we were the only ones left.” Dongho lied with a confident face.

Minhyun immediately shot his chin to see why would he lie about such a thing, but as soon as he saw the spiteful glare in Donghos eyes, he knew why.

Minhyun had become a murderer because of him, and Dongho himself was now a disgraced, runaway prince who wasn’t welcomed back. Plus, Dongho simply did not want to put Minhyun in anymore danger.

In fact, the prince no longer wished to serve a kingdom with such vile values, or ever wear its crown.

He did know for certain the future that was to come for the sunny kingdom. Yet Dongho firmly believed that the people back home could still change their ways of believing in ineffective sacrificial rituals and prayers, and instead in due time build the technology necessary to survive the storm just like the people living out here had.

Instead of ever notifying the kingdom of their survival and being sent back to the doomed city, the two men figured they could just instead start a new life here. Quite literally, they could help the spring reclaim the forests and mountains that had been previously claimed by the ice.

Everyone in the room had lowered their heads in regret after hearing the false news about the kingdom of eternal summer falling into a demise. Dongho felt bad for lying, but this seemed like their only safe choice.

Some man previously sitting boots heavy on a stool rose from his seat, waving his finger at Donghos swollen wrists, reminding the young male of the shackles that were found on his wrists before he had come.

“What about—?” He began to ask, an eyebrow raising in suspicion. Coming up with an excuse for it seemed like the hardest thing ever, but Minhyun choose to cover that for him.

“People who tried to flee the deadly city were being imprisoned. It was under the state of anarchy before it fell.” He made up another lie that wasn’t doubted.

The same older male then wished to ask about the royal seal found on Minhyuns sword. Everyone supposed that the two newcomers had to have been high in rank to own such nicely crafted steel weapons branding the mark of the king.

This time Minhyun also answered himself, but he made sure to look at Dongho first, confirming to one another that they would continue to lie about everything else too. So to obey his order, Minhyun did so.

“That man’s name is Kang Dongho, he was previously a worker at the royal castle.” Minhyun had to shut his eyes while lying to the audience.

“And I am Hwang Minhyun, his servant, who helped him cross.” He explained the use for a sword, eyes shot to the floor to hide his guilt.

Dongho would sharply cut in. “Minhyun is not a servant.” His high voice surprised everyone who had been used to it being so quiet and faint before.

“He is important to me.” Dongho told them, tightening the grip around Minhyuns fingers inside of his warm palm.

Hearing it said, Minhyun had never felt his heart beat so light before. He suddenly felt like crying from both sadness and joy that his prince would ever call him anything else than just his guard.

The prince finally saw that unlike all other knights that had served him, Hwang Minhyuns protection for him had come from the heart. Dongho shrugged his head away from Minhyuns sight first, and then from anyone’s, not wanting for it to be a big deal, because it really shouldn’t be.

The nurses of the ward and men who had come in all sighed one after another, getting out of their seats to leave the two men to rest for now.

Obviously they still seemed to act a bit jittery after have lived through days of walking through snow storms. Strangely enough, Minhyun and Dongho didn’t know what they were referring to, they felt just fine.

After having decided to live here, days would pass by quickly when together. Dongho was starting to like the spring more than the summer. Although it could get so cold at night out here, that you could even hardly call it that.

Dongho wore a thick scarf up to his nose while sitting out at night, sitting with his legs propped up on a high rooftop building of a house him and Minhyun now lived in.

At night he would come out here and reminisce about things, ramble or even sulk at the moon about both things that troubled or bought him joy. Minhyun happened to walk in on him during one such conversation, this time he had heard his own name get mentioned.

Dongho looked behind him with guilt in his eyes seeing Minhyuns annoying grin poke out of the hatch leading up here. He tip-toed his way up to sit beside Dongho, a mug of a warm bitter drink to share, barely drinkable, but warm nonetheless.

Minhyun eagerly snuggled his shoulders next to his friend, already forgetting to ask what Dongho was talking about to himself. He instead looked up into direction of the big moon that Dongho had been looking at tonight.

Dongho would just keep staring up, wistfully as if he was longing for something. Minhyun turned to him and spawned a pouty frown. He spoke just to interrupt him.

“Don’t you think it’s getting a little too cold to be staying up here?” Minhyun teased, causing Dongho to snort his chin to the side.

“When is it ever not cold?” He mocked, and Minhyun began to laugh. This time, the stubborn prince might have been right, but only this time.

Minhyuns toothy grin quickly infected Dongho with laughter too, but the laughter raining down from the rusty rooftop high up above a tight alleyway ceased just as quickly as it had began.

The two got caught up in looking at one another smiling – so bright, it was almost as if the daytime had come already. They both slowed and leaned forwards at one another, bumping noses.

Now they played the game of waiting and seeing which one of them were the bravest, which one would initiate a kiss first. Minhyun always won, this time he was the one to brush his lips onto the others as well.

Dongho pulled away too soon, feeling that it would felt too dangerous if they did this on a rooftop, as Minhyun could make him very lightheaded at times.

He looked away from the other as if he regretted for not continuing. Cheeks painted red from embarrassment. The two men instead looked back up at the starry sky again, distracting themselves with their own separate thoughts.

The life they had just began here were completely different from the one the one back in their home kingdom. They missed quite a bit of things from their old life. There weren’t any people they would miss though, especially right after being kicked out into the wastelands by them to freeze, while no one raised their voice to stop it.

It was mostly the small things Dongho missed. In the future, there would be no more fancy robes that they’d have to put on each morning. No more ball parties where Dongho would have to shake hands with royal guests. No more your highnesses.

But when they looked up at the bright night stars shine on them from above, the sky was still the same. And when they looked at one another, the same pretty smiles they always gave one another hadn’t changed either.

**Author's Note:**

> btw i actually imagined the city of survivors being something similar to the one from frostpunk! hehe


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